Photographing Your Space Like A Pro
We’re so excited to have Amy here with us today! You might remember her from previous guest appearances: her beautiful dining room, lovely striped foyer, and simple DIY gold home decor accents. Give her a warm welcome-back!
Hello everyone – Amy here from The Blissful Bee! I am so happy to be contributing to Remodelaholic and can’t wait to share some of my home photography/styling tips and tricks. Today I am going to show you my first secret in photographing your space like a pro.
How to Photograph Your Space Like A Pro
My first home photography tip is SO simple yet for some reason it took me about a year to figure out. Today, I’m here to save you some time so you can also take beautiful photos!
Ok so are you ready for the crazy simple secret??
Here it comes….
Wait for it….
wait for it….
TURN. OFF. THE. LIGHTS!!!!
Yupp. It’s as simple and easy as that. If you are looking to take detailed shots of your home and want magazine worthy photos, all you have to do is turn off the lights. Pretty crazy huh? I’m still kicking myself for not figuring it out sooner. I blogged for about a year until I realized I was doing it all wrong. But lucky for you guys, I’m letting you in on the secret!
Along with turning off the lights, you will need to open up every window in your room to get that natural light to flood the room. Either open the blinds or open your windows all the way. I like to shoot on a cloudy day so I don’t get any harsh shadows in the room while the windows are open.
Here are some shots to show you the process. Notice how I’ve opened up my blinds?
Woah that’s dark huh!!?? I took the above picture with my iPhone to show how dark the room actually looks in person.
But when you go in to take your detailed shot, you can see the natural lighting is absolutely stunning. The above picture is also taken with my iphone to show the raw beauty of the natural lighting. Even if you don’t have a fancy camera and you want to take detailed photos, the natural lighting will give you that “magazine” look.
The above photo is taken with my Canon Mark 5D. This camera is rather fancy (ok, really fancy!), but I wanted to show you how amazing these photos can really get.
Now that I’ve shown you how gorgeous your photos can get with natural lighting, let’s move on to what NOT to do…
As you can see, I have turned all the lights ON in the room. You might think this would give the photograph better lighting, but it’s actually the opposite! Instead, it gives the picture a flat look rather than that beautiful romantic look that the natural lighting gives off. Both with and without the flash, the photos are just dull. There is no dimension whatsoever. And they have such a strong yellow color (without the flash) and very intense blue color (with the flash). Not the best look if you ask me!
Here is a comparison picture to show you the difference side by side:
Big difference huh? When photographing the entire space (as opposed to a detailed shot) you will need to use a nicer camera. For a long time I used a Canon Rebel and it worked really well. It’s more of a “starter” camera and you can find some used ones online. Even with all the lights off, if you have your blinds open, your camera will have enough light to get a beautiful photograph. If you think your photo is still too dark, try over exposing the shot a bit. That should help:)
Well I hope you all enjoyed today’s photography tip! I cannot wait to come back for more tips and tricks. If you would like to see more of my work, make sure to stop on by The Blissful Bee. You can also see some more ideas on styling and home decor on my latest design project, [found here].
Thanks so much for having me today Cassie!
xo, amy
Great tips! I love that you showed some with and without shots
Thanks Virginia!! xo, amy
Great tips! But I have a question – what do you do if you’re shooting in an area with no natural light? Like a windowless room? Or a basement area with windows but still dim? I haven’t ponied up for a “real” camera yet, just using and iPhone 5. My pics are improving but my budget and experience are not ready for a good camera. I’ve noticed that a lot of blogs don’t cover basements, which are fairly standard in most tornado prone areas and ones with windows or outside access are only common in newer homes (which of late really could be anywhere).
Wonderful questions Brooke! in situations like those, if you will be using your iphone, you will for sure need to use some sort of lighting – and most likely the overhead lighting in the room. If you have a post editing program of any sort, you will be able to adjust the color balance and brightness of the photo. But most likely, iphone photos won’t give you the end product your looking for. I would suggest to save up over a year or so and invest in a base model of some sort. You can also find used cameras online or sometimes even at your local camera store. A lot of photographers sell their old models because they want the newer technology(not because anything is wrong with the camera). Typically Canons and Nikons last forever and will be a product you can keep for a very long time. Good luck with everything!
xo, amy
Well I can’t wait to take photos of my latest project tomorrow using these awesome tips. No Lights On!!!! Amy what ISO are you using for these shots?
Oh good! I typically shoot on a low ISO or even the auto ISO.
Okay, I can’t wait to try to get started this afternoon.
I used this tip to photograph a project this afternoon and was amazed by how much better my pictures were! Thank You so much for this valuable information 🙂
YAY! I am so glad to hear it helped you out!
Oh so good to hear!!
Spot on! I own a Nikon D3200 (starter dSLR) and whenever whatever I take photos from I try to make it without non-natural light or built-in flash. I noticed quite early on when starting out that the best pictures are taken (by me at last) in natural light, so great tip!
Awesome!! So glad you enjoyed the tip!!
I love Amy’s tips, but especially love the super helpful comparison shots! I CANNOT wait for other posts in this series 🙂
Thanks Brynne!!
Fabulous demonstration of how using natural light is a must! I think people don’t believe it until they see comparisons like these!
SO simple! Now, I’m kicking myself for not figuring that out sooner too. I’m going to try it today.
Oh my! this is amazing! this is a life saver tip (lol)! Thank you alot dear for sharing such a great tip <3 I need to start doing that as well.
I will have to try this. Lovely post. Love all of the detailed side by side photos. Thanks for sharing! Kari
when you are ‘overexposing’ a shot a bit, what are you setting your camera at? Thanks!